US vs. Western Europe: Who's Bigger on Mobile Retailing?

Shoppers in US more likely to participate in mobile shopping-related activities

Are US consumers more into mobile retailing than their counterparts in Western Europe? May 2015 research from RetailMeNot and the Centre for Retail Research suggests that shoppers in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK are less likely to participate in a variety of shopping-related activities on a smartphone or tablet.

Every single activity except using store locators was more common among respondents in the US than those in Western Europe, from making in-store mobile payments to using mobile coupons to comparing prices on a mobile device.

Perhaps unsurprisingly in light of those results, when asked about barriers to shopping on smartphones and tablets, respondents in Western Europe were also more likely to select virtually every response than those in the US. On security concerns, the two groups were equal, with 46% calling them a barrier. But on website load times, data privacy, payment complexity, mobile optimization and more, Western Europeans were more likely to complain.